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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider WHO: 4.5 million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines set to arrive in PH from COVAX facility

WHO: 4.5 million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines set to arrive in PH from COVAX facility

Published Mar 4, 2021 01:52 pm

The Philippines is expected to receive a total of 4.5 million doses of AstraZeneca coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines by May this year, an official of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday, March 4.

(Photo by Fred SCHEIBER / AFP)

WHO Representative to the Philippines Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe said that the COVAX facility, a global initiative aimed at giving equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, has committed to deliver the said number of vaccines from March to May.

An initial shipment of 487,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines are expected to arrive on Thursday. These vaccines were supposed to be delivered last Monday, March 1.

"So we had some initial problems with setting up the mechanisms and the deliveries. We are happy to note that the Philippines is receiving one of the largest consignment of COVAX vaccines. In this first initial consignment... (there are) 487,000 doses," he said.

"As I've mentioned, we expect 4.5 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines to arrive. We don't have the exact schedule now but they will be coming in larger batches possibly," he added.

The COVAX facility has also committed to send vaccines developed by American drugmaker Pfizer.

“And in addition to that, we will also be receiving 117,000 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. Plus, the additional quantities of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines that will be allocated will be known before the end of this month,” he added.

With this large number of vaccines set to be delivered, Abeyasinghe urged the Philippine government to prepare the different cold storage facilities in the country.

“We need to set up in the country the capacity to manage these large stocks of vaccines coming in,” he said.

“The Philippines needs to demonstrate that they can roll out the vaccines in an efficient manner, minimizing wastage of vaccines,” he added.

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